29 September 2009
The AC100 Centre for Teaching Excellence and Learning Support was created in September 2008 by Dr Andrea Mennicken (Lecturer in Accounting, AC100 course leader) as part of the LSE Teaching Innovation Award Scheme for first-year undergraduate students of the Department of Accounting. Funded by the LSE Annual Fund, the Centre offers teaching and learning support tailored towards the specific needs of students on the Elements of Accounting and Finance course, managed by Yasmine Chahed (LSE Fellow) in co-operation with Dr Mennicken.
The Centre was founded to address teaching problems particularly acute in large, quantitative undergraduate courses. AC100 is one of the largest LSE undergraduate courses with an exceptionally diverse student body in terms of cultural background and previous knowledge 38% of students come from the UK, 14% from continental Europe and the remaining 48% from further afield. Only 16% of students have Accounting A level, 2% have GCSE Accounting, while 82% have no prior knowledge of accounting. As a result, students have very different expectations and needs in terms of learning support.
In cooperation with the LSE Teaching and Learning Centre, the Centre for Learning Technology and the LSE Students' Union Accounting Society, Andrea Mennicken and Yasmine Chahed introduced a range of teaching innovations during the 2008-09 academic session to address these challenges. The aim was to transform AC100 into a supportive, stimulating and vivid learning environment, encouraging students to think critically and reflect on the techniques they learn. This included extensive use of features in Moodle (the School's Virtual Learning Environment), tailored one-to-one student mentoring, course-specific study skills workshops, and a peer-tutoring scheme strongly supported by the LSE SU Accounting Society.
The success of the peer-tutoring scheme, which involved second and third year undergraduates, and the other innovations for AC100 was reflected in a student satisfaction survey with a dramatic increase of student satisfaction from 75% to 95% for the course in 2008-09.
The Centre will continue to run this scheme and be innovative in its teaching and learning support in the 2009-10 academic session.